Letters To The Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

December 16, 2004

Indoctrination on campus is a real problem

As the author of the academic bill of rights, I would like to respond to the points Ellen Goodman made in her column about conservatives, or the lack thereof, on college faculties ("No sympathy for conservative cries about campus politics," Dec. 6).

Although Ms. Goodman would like readers to believe that claims of liberal indoctrination on college campuses are merely another right-wing conspiracy, the simple truth is that, according to a study by Professor Daniel Klein at Santa Clara University, registered Democrats greatly outnumber registered Republicans on academic faculties.

Ms. Goodman makes the unsubstantiated claim that conservatives spend $20 million on campus agitation. But if she looked at the budgets of the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, she would find that American campuses receive several multiples of that figure to support liberal agendas.

Ms. Goodman suggests that conservatives choose to go into business rather than pursue an academic career.

Well, why wouldn't they, when conservatives have been excluded from the faculties and administrations of so many colleges, while professors openly show their intolerance toward students who disagree with them?

Despite Ms. Goodman's protest to the contrary, indoctrination is a serious matter.

But thanks to the efforts of Students for Academic Freedom, legislators in more than 20 states are considering legislation for an academic bill of rights to correct this problem and bring balance back to our education system.

David Horowitz

Los Angeles

The writer is president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

Use inaugural funds to help the troops

Approximately $40 million will be spent on President Bush's inaugural festivities. In addition, wealthy Republicans will be shelling out $100,000 or more for an all-event ticket.

Perhaps this money would be better spent donating funds to upgrade equipment for our troops putting their lives on the line in Iraq.

Maria DeMeo

Baltimore

Turning tragedy into a TV farce

America was found guilty at the Scott Peterson trial ("Jury says Peterson should die for killing wife," Dec. 14).

Guilty of turning a tragedy into a game show. Guilty of raising another young attractive yuppie couple to the status of stardom.

In the meantime, women and children are beaten and killed daily by family members and friends.

Unfortunately, they are not telegenic and they do not come from fancy neighborhoods in California.

They die unknown and nameless simply because they do not fit into our concept of beauty or star quality.

Hence, they do not matter, and we do not want to know about them.

This woman and her child have been dead for two years and it's as if they are the only people who have been killed in that time.

That is the greatest tragedy of this "television event" brought to you by our sponsors - beauty, greed and media manipulation.

Michael S. Eckenrode

Baltimore

Peterson deserves his death sentence

Generally, I do not believe that a human being should be subject to the death penalty. However, the unborn baby Conner Peterson and his mother, Lacy Peterson, were murdered by a monster, not a human being ("Jury says Peterson should die for killing wife," Dec. 14).

No human being could sit there without remorse or emotion while listening to the details of the deaths of his wife and child. Therefore, I have no problems with this monster being put to death.

I hope California follows through with this sentence.

Gerard Oakley

Eldersburg

Killing wild horses to aid the ranchers

The inclusion in the new spending bill of a provision allowing wild horses to be sold for slaughter is not intended to improve the lives of wild horses and burros ("Measure in spending bill allows wild horses to be sold for slaughter," Dec. 9).

The actual reason for this provision is buried in the last paragraph of The Sun's article, in which Karen A. Sussman of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros points out that "cattle, not horses, are the main culprit in overgrazing of public lands."

Cattle ranchers in Western states graze their cattle on federally owned land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The fact that the wild horses and burros compete for this grass has been a longstanding irritation to the cattlemen, who have been looking for ways to reduce the wild horse and burro populations for years.

Sen. Conrad Burns' amendment has now opened the door to such a reduction by allowing animals not adopted to be shipped to slaughter.

Mr. Burns sponsored this amendment under the guise of concern for the living conditions of the horses, but in reality, the only nonhumane treatment these animals receive is what they suffer once they've been rounded up by the BLM and confined to overcrowded pens.